They are requiring the elderly with 401s or IRAs to expose their income to taxation. The idea is their personal expenses are less ~ fewer trips to Acapulco for example ~ they have higher medical expenses, many of which are covered by Medicare ~ and they aren’t going to live all that much longer so it’s time to spend like a drunken sailor.
Actually, the IRS life expectancy tables are heavily rigged in favor or the IRA holder. Your IRS life expectancy at age 70 is 27.4 years, which is much higher than the real expectancy, so you get to draw your money out more slowly than you should.
Beneficiaries have to use more realistic life expectancy tables.
“...time to spend like a drunken sailor.”
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As a former drunken sailor I would not advise doing that. The typical drunken sailor is twenty years old, single and can simply go back to the ship or shore station, eat in the galley and live without money until the next payday. Most civilians are not in that position.